Archive for the ‘Salad, Dressing, Dip & Sauce’ Category

I had this salad when I was at my gym potluck party. Considering myself not a cole slaw fan I even got hooked from the first bite. So I asked my workout friend Kathy, who made this salad, for the recipe. The dish is easy to prepare, and the flavor is very light and refreshing. Since the cabbage is finely shredded, you won’t feel like eating big chunks of cabbage which really turns me off for raw cabbage.

Mix dressing well until all combined and sugar dissolves. Pour over salad before serving. Toss well.

Regina’s Note:

Cabbage: I use a knife to finely shred but you can also use mandolin or other shredding tools. The key is to shred as thin as possible.

Asian noodle snack: You can find this snack in Asian grocery store, in snack aisle. Depending on the brand, it comes in different form (crumbs, whole piece, balls) so crush it if needed. And choose original flavor.

I made crab dip before, but I wasn’t quite happy with the taste– I was trying to replicate the baked crab dip at Horatio’s (A restaurant in San Leandro that has famous crab dip) but it tasted too tangy to me. Well, crab season is here again so I’m fine tuning the recipe. It’s much closer to Horatio’s and way better than my previous versions. This will be on my winter party food list when crab is in season. Yes, a keeper 🙂

Melt butter in a sauce pan, sauté garlic and onion for a few minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

Add all ingredients and sautéed onion in a mixing bowl. Mix with a spoon to combine. Pour mixture into a 9″ pie dish. Smooth the surface and sprinkle extra mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 375 F for 15-20 minutes, until it’s bubbly and the top crust is golden brown. Serve hot with sliced bread or crackers.

Regina’s Note:

Crab: Dungeness crab meat taste better than canned crab meat. Picking the meat out takes some time but can be done 1-2 days ahead and kept chilled in fridge. For adventurous eaters, creamy yellowish crab brain inside the body shell (scoop out with a spoon and put in a separate container and keep chilled) can also be added for more flavor. When sautéing onion, add this creamy goodness to sauce pan and cook until the oil starts separating, stirring at all times. This will take a few minutes.

Mozzarella cheese: add more mozzarella cheese if you want more cheese stringy look, but not too much as it will change the texture of the dip.

Flavor: sugar is added to help bring out the sweetness of the crab meat, so it has a sweet taste along with savory. Do not add too much salt or the flavor will change.

Thanks to my Bermese Chinese friend Amy, I get to try many kinds of delicious Bermese food, especially the ones you won’t even find in a Bermese restaurant. This spicy tomato sambal is just one of them. It looks very much like sambal chili sauce, except it’s mostly tomatoes. Amy told me that in Myamar, people eat it with fresh cucumber. I tried it and it was really good– the spiciness matches very well with the refreshing cucumber, kinda fire and ice in every bite. Besides cucumber, I think this sambal is also great on steamed rice, tortilla chips, keropok (shrimp or fish crackers), or even mee siput (Malaysian crispy noodle snack)!

Put fresh and canned tomatoes in a food processor, pause blend briefly so that the tomatoes still have some texture. Set aside.

In a deep pot pour in half of 1/2 cup of oil, and turn up to high heat. Fry garlic, shallots, dried shrimps and balachan until flavors come out. Add in peppers, fry for a few more minutes.

Add in remaining half of the oil and tomatoes. Stir to mix well with a wooden spoon (you can leave the spoon in the pot the entire time without it getting hot). Uncovered, cook on high heat (stirring every 10 minutes or so) until the liquid reduces to 1/3 and the sauce thickens (this is a long process, it took me about 1.5 hours). At this point, keep a close eye on the sambal.

Turn down heat to medium and stir frequently (about 5 minute interval, about 20-30 minutes total)) until the sambal thickens further (test: when you run the spoon across the bottom of the pot, the sambal doesn’t come together. Also, oil starts separated from tomatoes).

Add cilantro and salt to taste. Stir a few times. Remove and cool completely before dividing into batches. Store in air tight containers, in the refrigerator. The sambal should keep for at least 10 days. To keep it longer store in the freezer.

Regina’s Note:

Just like regular sambal chili sauce, this tomato sambal can be kept frozen. I like to make extras, divide into small ziplog bags (air tight) and freeze for later use.

“Rojak” is a Malaysian style salad mixed with a special sauce that made with shrimp paste and among other stuff. The ingredients for the salad itself are usually a combination of sliced fruits and vegetables. Because of added shrimp paste in the rojak sauce, some people may find rojak stinky and fishy, while others like myself think it’s delicious and addicting!

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and microwave to warm up slightly. Mix well and toss with other rojak ingredients (pineapples, cucumber, jicama, bean sprouts, water spinach, Chinese donut, tofu puffs etc…)

Our good friends Lance and Tina gave us some really big juicy tomatoes from their backyard, so I turned those tomatoes into marinara sauce because we use marinara sauce a lot when we prepare pasta dishes. The cooking process is not complicated, but just long so the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens. For me it took me about 1.5 hours to cook the sauce, not too bad because I didn’t have to stay and stir the sauce constantly. I was busy preparing other food ingredients for lunch/dinner, and the next thing I knew the sauce was about done!

Prepare tomatoes: remove the stem part, make a cross cut at the bottom. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or until the skin starts to peel off. Drain tomatoes and remove the skins. Put in a food processor and pulse chop tomatoes. Save the juice.

Heat a deep pot on high heat and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil. Saute garlic and onion until aromatic. Stir in red chili flakes, tomatoes and juice. Cook on high heat for several minutes. Turn down to medium, and continue cooking until about 1/3 of the sauce left. Stir the sauce occasionally. Add salt to taste. When the sauce cools completely, it can be bagged into batches and kept frozen until ready to use.